Monday, October 10, 2011

Pro Life Campaign welcomes decision of Government not to support recommendations calling on Ireland to introduce abortion

The UN Human Rights Council today published its draft report on Ireland’s human rights record as part of the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The report included recommendations from six countries for Ireland to bring in abortion. The Government accepted many of the recommendations in the report but rejected all the calls relating to abortion.

Last week, Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, representing the Government in Geneva at the public session of the UN Human Rights Council was questioned on a wide range of human rights related issues. Some 60 stakeholders and NGOs made submissions to the Universal Periodic Review, including the Pro Life Campaign, which is an accredited NGO of the United Nations.

Commenting on today’s UN Human Rights Council report on Ireland, Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro Life Campaign said:

The Pro Life Campaign welcomes the decision of the Government not to support recommendations from a number of countries for Ireland to introduce abortion. These calls for abortion legislation fly in the face of the UN’s own recent research showing that Ireland, without abortion, is a world leader in terms of safety for women in pregnancy.[1]

Maternal safety in Ireland, it should be noted, is better than in the six countries pressurising Ireland to introduce abortion. The legal reality is that the recent European Court of Human Rights decision in A, B and C v. Ireland does not oblige Ireland to introduce abortion.

The countries that pressured Ireland to introduce abortion were Holland, Germany, Denmark, Slovenia, Norway and Spain.